Estée Lauder uses social media for long-time cause

Estée Lauder's 16-year-old “Breast cancer awareness campaign,” an autumn tradition thanks to its pink ribbons, gains a major digital component this year. The campaign will have its largest online pres­ence ever this year, including social media, display ads and special content.

Estée Lauder wanted “to take this year's campaign so much further in the digital space by leveraging the experience we've been gaining in social media with our brands,” said Marisa Thalberg, VP of global digital marketing at Estée Lauder. “By doing so, we hope to make it much more about participating and reaching newer, younger audiences.”

Participation is important because “women tend to share,” Thalberg explained. If Estée Lauder can put a message about breast cancer in front of women online in a fun, participatory way, “women who are not exposed to these message in traditional media will have a way to think about it” and share it, she continued.

Thalberg also noted that, because breast cancer has a high rate of being cured if it is detected early, it was important to try and reach younger audiences.

Estée Lauder has teamed up with Brick­fish for a storytelling portion of the digital campaign. Individuals are encouraged to share inspirational stories about how breast cancer has affected them. User entries can be voted on and shared. This portion of the campaign will be hosted on Estée Lauder brand Web sites including aveda.com and Clinique.com. It will also be supported with display ads.

Estée Lauder will also bring its message to MySpace, Facebook and other social networks through a partnership with Slide, a publisher of social network applications such as SuperPoke, which lets users virtu­ally “wink” at friends on their social media pages. This month, users will be able to poke someone with a pink ribbon.

Beauty Web site TotalBeauty.com will offer a boutique featuring the Breast Can­cer Awareness 2008 Pink Ribbon products to help raise funds for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

“[Social media] is a really powerful way for women to communicate with one another,” Thalberg said, adding that Estée Lauder may not ever know how far- reaching this campaign is because of its viral nature.